Lack of advertising revenue is forcing an independent news website to close its online doors.
Westcoaster.ca ceased publication after five years effective Monday, March 7.
“The reason is simple: the publication is not receiving the advertising support necessary to continue,” owner Keven Drews said.
“It does not appear like that situation will change.”
Drews started Westcoaster.ca in 2005 “…because a handful of local writers, techies and business people believed many stories were going untold in this region,” his website noted.
Westcoaster.ca, he said, strived to deliver news stories – fair, accurate, well balanced and timely – to residents of the Alberni-Clayoquot free of charge.
Drews broke national stories, such as the unsuccessful search in 2008 for seven-year-old William Pilkenton who disappeared in Tofino.
And he was the first to report the filming of the Twilight movie New Moon in Tofino in 2009.
The number of people who accessed the story online almost crashed Westcoaster’s server.
Drews revamped Westocoaster.ca in 2010, giving the site a new look while providing the same timely content.
But the effort was to no avail.
Drews graduated from the Langara journalism school, and spent time as a reporter and editor in British Columbia, Washington State and the Orient.
reporter@albernivalleynews.com